As winter storm Nemo bears down on the East Coast, media outlets are in a frenzy trying to warn their readers of the frosty, impending doom. The blogosphere is a-flurry with updates and information on this Nor'eastern, and the entire country waits with bated breath as, ironically, Nemo begins to find us.
Different blogs are bringing different information about this storm to light. The New York Times published a post about the nomenclature of Nemo, whereas The Daily Beast is delivering real-time weather updates in a Twitter-style format.
The rhetorical implications of the differences in topic between these two blogs is curious - one would expect that The New York Times publication would provide relevant, necessary details about what to expect in the impending storm, as well as bits of information about what the New England region and its officials are doing to ensure their citizens' safety. However, what we see instead is a report centered entirely upon the interesting choice of name for this weather woe. Unexpectedly, The Daily Beast provides us with the better source of pertinent information about the preparation for and likely effects of our nefarious Nemo.
The specific syntactical formatting of the two blogs is interesting to note - whereas The New York Times delivers its report in standard paragraph form, The Daily Beast intersperses its real-time updates, with time stamps and screen shots of different Tweets from news sources and city officials. However, the standard formatting of The New York Times blog post and the social media layout of The Daily Beast blog post do not reflect the nature of the content of the blogs. Rather, the whimsical structure of The Beast's post contrasts the important information contained within the Tweets and real-time updates.
What are your thoughts, feelings and fears for winter storm Nemo? For my local readers, how happy are you that we're already experiencing warmer weather? For anyone in the Northeast who stumbles across this post, WHAT ARE YOU STILL DOING ONLINE?! NEMO IS AFOOT! BEWARE!
Great post, Meredith. It is ironic that the NY Times would be more interested in the origins of the storm's name than its effects on the region. To answer your question, I am VERY happy about our warm winters here in Texas - although I often question my sanity during the summer months.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you made the observation that the organization of The Daily Beast's post took away from the importance of the information within. It points to the significance of the little things in a post, such as organization or media included. And I agree with Candice above, at time like this I appreciate even more living in Texas. But I'm also still looking forward to even warmer weather and the summer.
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